At a time in last season, the Hurricanes were struggling to muster up any kind of good consistent effort. As they were "circling the drain", forwards and defenseman alike were dropping like flies due to either injury or the "Bucket in front of you - while you're stuck on the toilet - and losing 12 lbs. for 3 days" flu that struck the whole team.

One bright spot among that rather crap-tacular period was the call-up of Albany River Rat and St. Cloud State alum, Casey Borer. There was something about him that Caniac Nation immediately approved of. I myself, was just happy to see team management give someone else a shot. The D-corps seemed either tired, complacent or too old if they weren't on the shelf due to injury/flu.

In eleven games on the Carolina bench, Borer registered 2 assists and 1 goal (I won't forget seeing Roddy Brind'amour go down and snatch the puck up for Casey's souvenir). He may have been a -3, but his 6 goal, 13 assist and +19 in 61 Albany games seem to suggest he's defensively sound enough to cover up for any potential flaws in his game.

In March, Casey was playing a game against the Syracuse Crunch when this happened:"It was the start of the period, and they didn't let the ice freeze," Borer said. "I was carrying the puck up and it got stuck in the water, and I kind of twisted back for it with my torso, and my knees didn't come with me. The guy was already lining up to hit me, and I was in a vulnerable position. My knee must have been exposed, and we just got twisted up weird." - Wikipedia

Assuming that he can make a full recovery, I'd be surprised if Borer is not a part of the 3rd line D-pairing for the Canes come October.

Besides, with John Grahame banished signing to play in Russia - who is there on the team for the stalkers? Casey has had at least one fan girl vowing for his love since his college days:

Saturday, June 28, 2008

-Bubba @ Canes Country is the Champion blogger. When none of the restavus Canes bloggers have anything to update about - he pulls out all the stops with some full analysis or interviews some V.I.P.'s. Keep up the great work, bud. Something tells me that the team will be embracing your talents soon enough.

-As far as free agents go - don't expect any big splashes. Remember last summer when our big acquisition was (drum roll) - Jeff Hamilton? I just don't see my boy, Jimmy, going over the top for any of the big names. JM Liles would work out well in this system but is probably going to land a much more lucrative deal elsewhere this summer. If I had to gamble on one - I'd put a shiny wooden nickel on Commodore returning. Also expect someone you may have never heard of.. (AKA an affordable guy).

still can't get used to seeing this

-Speaking of Green Eggs & Hamilton - I feel the need to send him off properly. After a kickass start to the season, I was shouting on high how smart JR was for signing this guy. He had a rocket of a shot, he seemed to pickup an assist every time there was a power play goal and by all reviews of him - he was a great character guy.

As his point total started to decline, so did his ice time as other teams started to crack down on the "Five Forward Power Play" that had worked so well. It's unfortunate that heart doesn't win you games - because Jeff Hamilton has plenty of it. Best wishes, Hammy.

(image via Flickr user MaesMama)

-I've been wanting to do a post about the whole free agent frenzy using the dude, "I Need Money" from the movie How High. Oh well. There it is.

-WTD with Chad LaRose? Management wants to get bigger on the 4th line? What does that have to do with The Chuck Norris of Hockey? Why even associate 4th line and Chad LaRose in the same sentence? Come on, dude.

(image via Flickr user [Keith] )

-What's Sergei Samsonov doing this summer? Wodka, Wodka, Wodka?

-Roddie Brind'amour is a beast. Something tells me that next season is going to be a career best for him. Just sayin'.

-$5 bucks says Matt Cullen has more points next year too. Oh yeah! Carolina On Ice is now the sponsor of his page at hockey-reference.com! I can't even remember how long ago that started.

-Darcy Hordichuk can suck one.

-Sure, I spend a good amount of time on hockey blogs and hockey related sites. I think I've seen this girl staring at me - ohhhh - I'll guess about 700 times in the past 30 days.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

behind every athlete, there lies the potential to make something of them self outside their sporting arenas. Some choose to use that to their advantage, while others tend to lean towards jackassery. After further research on Darcy Hordichuk, he is obviously a character guy who is making the most of his opportunities in life.

I perused his awesomely nasty website, DarcyHordichuk.com and read about his charitable donations that he does (did) during every Preds game. Similar to what Ward does with "Cam's Champs", but as an offensive player:

For every goal scored: $160

For each assist scored: $116

For each hit recorded: $16

For each standing ovation the crowd gives at home games: $16

Goes towards the Best Buddies program or to help fight Leukemia. And as he puts it "no one is going to mistake me for Mario Lemieux", so he alternated his teammates throughout different months of the season (for example, say the month of October -- every time Staal has a goal, assist or hit... as well).

It is certainly character guys like this that Jim Rutherford has always sought out in his players. Seeing as he's still relatively young (he'll be 28 by the time the season starts), he's a stand-up guy off & on the ice and that he will protect our team against the goons -- this is looking like a shrewd move by Jimmy Rutherford if he can in fact get him signed.

The Tiiiimmmmmmmmaaaaah news is outstanding, for it seemed that all the negotiations on re-signing him were going nowhere. I figured that my boy Jimmy was low-balling him. Young stud defenseman don't just grow on trees these days, nowdon'tyaknow... but the strides he has made in the past two seasons have been great and it's good to know that his reliability is here to stay. Love his toughness too. Favorite moment from this past season was when he body slammed Nathan Horton onto the ice. Looking forward to many more occasions like such. I'm thinking that the 4 year $11.5Mil contract is a number that all sides can live with, though I bet Gleason and his agent were after a bit more.

In another off the wall move today, the Canes brought in Darcy Hordichuk from the Nashville Predators who I'll admit I know very little about. Judging from his stats - he appears to be a hit or miss kind of player who has dealt with the injury bug before (welcome to Raleigh, you'll fit right in!). He is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent as of July 1st, but something tells me that Jimmy Boy will get a contract on this cat before that happens. The good thing about this player is that he's the "tough guy" who can actually win a fight. Check out his fight card over at Hockeyfights.com.

So if Hordichuk signs to play on our fourth line, you can pretty much guarantee that Wade Brookbank won't be back... (Darcy loves the ladies, is someone stepping into the Pimp hat role for the departed John Grahame?)

Today marks two years to the date that the Hurricanes raised Lord Stanley's mug after Game 7 in Raleigh. It can seem like it was just yesterday; the nervousness before the game, the sweating, the "it's really OK if they end up losing - I have a life outside of the team, right?" thoughts... but it can also seem like a REALLY long time ago if you consider that there has been two other teams now that have raised it since the Canes.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Well, the NHL season is officially over. So what's there to talk about? Not much, I guess. The draft is coming up, but I'm just not ready to get all into that yet. "Why not?", you may ask. Well, it's because there's something more important that we must do first.You see, the NHL awards banquet just happened and there were plenty of awards and accolades to be handed out. Sure, we all knew that the Ovenchicken would get plenty of trophies. And we knew that Lidtrom would get some hardware. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Because, as you may not know, there is one more awards event that doesn't get nearly as much publicity as it should: It is our very own Carolina On Ice [TM] Awards.

Yes, the Wuff and I have been busy nominating and voting on those very special players who, in our eyes, deserve recognition for those qualities that make them special. The votes have been cast. The numbers have been tallied (nearly every award was won by a vote count of 2-0). And the results are in. So without further ado, I give you the first annual C.O.I. Awards!

You've all heard of the "Lester Pearson" award, which is given to the top player as selected by the NHLPA. Well, at C.O.I., we have the "Mo Lester Person" Award:

It is given to the player with the worst mullet. Since this is the inaugural year, we decided that this award should not be limited to the current year, but should go to the worst mullet in all of the hockey historical record. To set a benchmark, of sorts. So, without further ado, the winner is: [drumroll please]

Jaromir Jagr! Yes, there were some other truly deserving mullets out there to choose from. But when I realized that he was a dead ringer for 2/3 of the girls in my (mid '80's) high school yearbooks, I knew we had our winner. Nice bangs, jackass...

Ahem... Moving on, you are no doubt familiar with the "Masterson" Award, which the NHL gives to the player who illustrates perserverence to the sport of hockey. Well, we here at C.O.I. have commissioned the "Bastard Son" Award. It could only go to one person this year: Sean Avery.

Now, the "BS" Award is not given for perserverence. Rather, it is for the person who thinks he is a hot dog; but is instead, merely a weiner. I'd post a picture of Mr. Avery, but why would I do that to our loyal readers? I wouldn't.

Now, our next award may take a little explaining. As you all know, the "Vezina" trophy is always given to Martin Brodeur. Or at least it seems that way lately. Anyway, it is for the best goaltender. However, here at C.O.I., instead of the "Vezina" award, we give the "Vagina" award:

It goes to the biggest [well, you know...] in the NHL. We fought over this award (both the design and the winner) long and hard [pun fully intended]. We agreed relatively quickly, that the winner would be Jack "I won't play for Carolina" Johnson. But we couldn't agree on what form the trophy should take. I wanted a golden baby. Wuff wanted a golden kitten. But then, we compromised on a vibrator. It only made sense, as Johnson and the vibrator both have something in common. They are both stuck up twats.

The next NHL award that is near and dear to Caniacs is the "Selke" Award, which is given to the best defensive forward. Our very own Rod Brind'amour has dominated this award lately. But here at C.O.I., we have the "Sucky" award. Also known as the Lindy Ruff Award. It goes to the whiniest, most annoying bitch in hockey:

This year's award goes to Olli Jokinen; for his outstanding achievement in the art of whining about diving. In fact, his whining act was so good this year, it actually affected the officiating in at least one game, and maybe two. The balloting for this award wasn't even close. Ole Whiny Jokinen's crying was so good/bad this year, we nearly went ahead and gave it to him for next year as well. But we didn't, because we figured he'd whine about that too, if we did.

The NHL also gives out the "Norris" Trophy. This goes to the best Defenseman in the league. What do we here at C.O.I. think? Big whoop. Who cares about Pronger, Chara, Lidstrom, some other random mutant, ... etc. They've got nothing on Chad Larose - the winner of C.O.I.'s "Chuck Norris" Trophy:

But be careful Chad, the Chuck Norris Trophy must be kept seperate from any other trophies. It has been known to eat them, and crap little aluminum bullets. It is that bad ass...

And last, but certainly not least... There is another NHL award that is closely connected with the Hurricanes. It is the "Lady Byng" award for gentlemanly play. Ronnie Francis has a couple of these in his collection. But we just couldn't bring ourselves to reward gentlemanly play. Rather, we thought we'd come up with an award for work ethic. But being motivated slackers, we decided it'd be more appropriate if we came up with an award not for work ethic; but rather a lack thereof. An award for the player that best exemplifies the attitude of "I don't care if my save percentage is lower than Roger Clemens' batting average; I'm skipping practice and heading to the strip club!" So, we created the "Bada Byng" Award.

And this year's winner is: [dramatic music please]

The Russian League's newest backup goalie - John Grahame!

So anyways, thank you for tuning in for this special presentation of the first Annual C.O.I. Awards Banquet. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Be sure to tune in next week when Wuffy comes back from vacation and realizes that I've posted both a picture of a vibrator and the word "twat" in the same post. Mayhem ensues...

Brace yourself folks. The Stalker face himself is supposedly entertaining offers from the organ-eye-zation as we speak.

Via Russianprospects.com:Anton Babchuk(Carolina Hurricanes) is currently evaluating his options, one of which is to return to North America and accept an offer from the Carolina Hurricanes. Another option for Anton is to remain in Russia and re-sign with HC Avangard (Omsk), which has given him a qualifying offer to remain with the club. While Babchuk did not completely fulfill the expectations placed on him this past season in the Super League (Russia 1), he did deliver a strong season, thus making his return to the NHL likely, though it may not be with the Hurricanes if they trade his rights .Although he's a decent prospect in the system, and the team has a boner for a d-man with potential & and offensive upside -- I just can't see my boy Jimmy forgiving the redonkulous way that Babs handled the assignment to Albany a few years ago. JR has been one of the most loyal GMs to his players, as in situations where a player is true to him, he returns the favor. Try and cross him though? You'll end up a healthy scratch or playing for the Florida Everblades for the duration of your contract.

Should be vawey intawesting to see what shakes down with Anton in the coming months.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I wish nothing but the best to a character man like Glen Wesley with his retirement. Between his beautiful family, his dedication to the game and everything he's done for the organ-eye-zation; it just doesn't get much classier than Wes.

Anyone got a good pic they want to upload to Google Earth that shows the RBC grounds the way they should look; with a raucous crowd of Caniacs tailgating?

A closer look:

This shot here appears to be your smokers lounge that fills up during each intermission. If I could only look in the window there, I'd probably see my homeslice that runs the Sausage Stop outside the Gates to the Priority Lounge.

Just for fun, the Florida Panthers' home: BankAtlantic Center

*Not available to see through Google Earth in this shot, the magnitude of empty seats and overflow pool of Jacque Martin's tears from crying about the Canes. Somebody should e-mail the Google and tell them to include that in their next update.

Personally, I'm happy with the decision to keep Patrick Eaves in Raleigh. Although many still view him as a prospect, if he can stay healthy- he'll be one hell of a bargain 3rd line forward for the 1-1/2 Mil range.

I was trying to find the YouTubeage of him that Andy of H/I sent my way a few months ago... it was an interview that a Canadian station did with him while he was still in Ottawa. He displayed his collection of over a hundred pairs of shoes. We're talking some serious funk on his kicks. If any of you locals see him out and about the town this Fall, you'll see what I mean. We're talking Chuck Taylors with graffiti art all over them. Anyhoo, that video has since been taken off of the YouTube.

Careful where you might wear these out around here... some people might get the wrong idea Patty...

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